


like penguins huddling together in the goddamn antarctic wind

by fuhllmetal



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coming Out, M/M, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, hunk is the good mostly-straight, spoilers for beginning of episode 6 you know what i'm talking about, the sheith is only very heavily implied but not explored, this is self indulgent as all hell im so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 22:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7408099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuhllmetal/pseuds/fuhllmetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Clearing the air, huh?” Pidge chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”</p><p>“What, are you a girl, too, Shiro?” Lance peeked over at Shiro, his expression a strange mix of amused and cautious disbelief. Shiro flinched near imperceptibly, but chuckled a beat afterwards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like penguins huddling together in the goddamn antarctic wind

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from the longer quote, "we find each other subconsciously and huddle together like penguins in the goddamn antarctic wind," from my friend on the day we found out that 80% of our friend group isn't cishet, a quote i've taken to heart and treasured ever since
> 
> this is incredibly self-indulgent and honestly not that well written but i felt like i should put something out there for voltron in the mean time because wow!! this show has captured me and it won't let go
> 
> i'm working on a much longer and only slightly less-useless fic at the moment that should go up eventually (i hope), but for now, take this feel-good garbage

“Shiro, why are we here? I’m tired.” Lance groaned, rubbing his eyes with two half-clenched fists.

“We’re all tired, Lance.” Hunk replied, the latter half of Lance’s name obscured in a yawn. Pidge snorted into her sleeve.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make this quick. I just had an idea in the spirit of Pidge’s desire to clear the air of secrets between us before we have another big battle.” Shiro said, folding his arms. He sat at the head of the table, Keith at his right and Lance at his left. Hunk sat next to Lance and Pidge next to Keith, and Coran stood next to Allura, who was sitting at the other end of the table opposite Shiro.

“Clearing the air, huh?” Pidge chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.”

“What, are you a girl, too, Shiro?” Lance peeked over at Shiro, his expression a strange mix of amused and cautious disbelief. Shiro flinched near imperceptibly, but chuckled a beat afterwards.

“No, not exactly. Not at all, actually, but there was a time where ‘not exactly’ was a bit more apt,” he said. “Yes, I’m a guy, but I had to ‘man up,’ to use Pidge’s words, to get there. I don’t know if Alteans have a similar concept, but I think my fellow Earthlings have picked up what I’m putting down.”

 

Lance’s eyes bulged. He didn’t sputter this time, at least, but he wasn’t trying very hard to conceal his shock, though. Hunk took a moment to get it, but after taking a knowing glance from Pidge across from him, he nodded quickly, a huge grin on his face. Keith and Pidge looked absolutely unsurprised, equally as pleased looks on their faces.

“Y-You…just how many of you are trans, anyway?!” Lance shouted. Shiro and Pidge burst out laughing at the same time.

“Trans?” asked Allura, her brow furrowed. Coran’s face mirrored her expression.

“Humans and gender are really complicated, but basically, we’re assigned a gender at birth based on the junk under our hoods, but not everyone quite fits what they’re assigned.” Pidge explained the basics and then motioned to her flat, but existent, chest. “I didn’t always have these babies,” she grinned.

“Yeah, and I didn’t always look like _this_ , either.” Shiro chipped in, motioning to his flat chest and square jaw. “I pass pretty well, clearly, but I thought it would be a good idea to share that with you all, especially after Pidge came out.”

 

Lance looked over to Keith across from him and scowled at Keith’s proud smile on his face.

“What are you so jazzed about, Keith? You look way too pleased with yourself, considering this isn’t about you.” He barked, his voice much too accusatory for the situation. Keith looked over to him with the most deadpan expression he could muster.

“I already knew, and I’m proud of Shiro, that’s all. What crawled up your ass and died, _Lance_?” Keith asked, putting double the emphasis on the blue pilot’s name.

“Wait wait wait wait, you already knew?! How?!” Hunk exclaimed, nearly shooting out of his chair.

“Well, me and Shiro knew each other before the Kerberos mission. I found out, from him directly, a long time ago.” Keith said, his voice lowering. His face was flushed red from the tips of his ears to the base of his neck, and he shot Shiro a look that cried for help. Shiro, the tips of his ears becoming slightly pink, sent him an utterly unhelpful smile, but no verbal backup.

“Knew each other, eh?” Pidge asked, leaning in with a ridiculously sultry look on her face. Keith covered his face with his hands and groaned as loudly as possible while Shiro did nothing but laugh nervously.

“Yes, we… _know_ each other. Pretty well.” Shiro said, unable to keep the grin off of his face. Keith just groaned again, sinking deeper and deeper into his chair. Lance nearly fell out of his own chair.

 

 “That wasn’t common knowledge?” Coran asked, looking genuinely puzzled.

“Apparently not, but I picked up on it as well, Coran.” Allura said, her smile wry and eyes twinkling.

“Excuse me?! How many other things does everyone else seem to know about that _I_ don’t?!” Lance shrieked.

“You _seriously_ didn’t pick up on Shiro and Keith being gay. Dude, that's a little pathetic.” Hunk said.

“Well of _course_ I picked up on that. What do you take me for?” Lance put a hand over his heart with a longsuffering sigh. “Don't pretend like you didn’t just find out either, Hunk! I just didn’t think that the two of them _did the nasty_ together in that little desert shack is all, so shoot me!”

“ _No we didn’t!_ ” Shiro and Keith yelled in unison, both beet red by now. Pidge burst out into a renewed fit of cackles, taking off her glasses to wipe away the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

“The nasty? The mess must have been very large if you’re both that embarrassed about it.” Coran piped up. “I’m glad you’re not doing that around the Castle, otherwise you’d certainly be cleaning it up yourselves with no help from yours truly.”

 

That comment was enough to make all of the paladins, save Keith, lose their minds laughing. Keith was too busy melting onto the floor in embarrassment to find any part of Coran’s unwitting double entendre remotely funny. Even Allura, who had picked up a little faster than Coran had, was giggling into her hand at her fellow Altean’s expense. Coran, after a solid thirty ticks of raucous laughter, realized what ‘the nasty’ was and sighed deeply, a wry smile on his face.

After the laughter subsided and the streams of tears wiped away on shirtsleeves and hands, the members of the meeting regained their composure and a new stress-free and open atmosphere settled over the table.

 

“Well, if anyone has anything else to add, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Shiro said, addressing everyone with his leader voice. “Though if it’s really important, I’d prefer you’d share it at a later time if you’re not going to now, considering Voltron and our whole team dynamic.”

“I’m bi.” Lance blurted out, and a few seconds later a deep red blush creeped out over his cheeks from behind where his hand had clapped over his mouth.

His admission was met with a chorus of “who’s surprised,” “that was a secret?”, and “we all know, Lance, c’mon.” Lance visibly deflated, putting his head down on the table.

“That felt so good to say, but I wish it came out with more…I dunno, slickness?” he mumbled. Keith scoffed.

“What, were you gonna go with something ridiculously cheesy like ‘I’m playing for both teams,’ or something like that? Because you were better of with just saying it, man,” he said. Lance lifted only his head, a scowl etched into his face.

“Actually, I had an elaborate metaphor, an epic tale, even, about being a professional football player with multiple team contracts at one time planned out, but okay, you can just boil it down to that, sure, thanks,” he growled before slapping his forehead back down onto the table.

“I think we were better off without it.” Pidge said. Everyone nodded, and Lance sighed, lifting his head back up completely.

“You guys are so supportive, yet so unsupportive sometimes,” he said. “You don’t criticize me as a concept, but you criticize my words, my very being. How cruel.”

“Stop being a drama queen.” Pidge said, getting on the table to flick Lance in the forehead. Lance squawked and flailed, just barely staying in his seat as Pidge retreated back to her own seat unscathed and giggling madly.

           

“Anyone else?” Keith asked, looking at Hunk very pointedly.

“Uh, I’m not really sure, but I don’t think I’m totally straight,” Hunk faltered, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry guys. I’ll have to pass on that one for now.”

“On Altea, romance and the associated topics aren’t that different from what I’ve heard are typical on Earth, but I can’t say that the gender distinctions are quite the same, which makes things fairly complicated. I’d love to hear more about this topic in-depth in the future, though.” Allura said, clapping her hands together.

“I can’t say I’ve been too successful in those departments, but there was this one time where…” Coran began rambling on about some obscure story from his days as a cadet, but it didn’t last long, as Lance interrupted him with a short scream.

“What?!” Coran exclaimed, worried. Lance shot him a suave grin and paired finger guns.

“It worked,” was all Lance said, and the topic was dropped.

 

“This has been an enlightening conversation to say the least.” Shiro said, a little smile on his face as he leaned back in his chair. He regarded his teammates briefly, his eyes settling on Keith for a little longer than everyone else, and then he hummed to himself. “Didn’t really expect it to go this way, but I won’t say I never considered it, either.”

“We need a tally for all of this or something because, holy crow, guys,” Hunk chuckled.

“So, what, me and Shiro are trans, Shiro and Keith are gay I’m assuming,” Pidge began, looking to the pair for confirmation. The two nodded. “Lance is bi, me and Hunk aren’t sure yet, and Coran and Allura have their own Altean thing going on that’ll be addressed at a later date. Cool.”

“I guess cool is one word for it.” Keith said, pillowing his head on crossed arms as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling.

“Yeah. Cool.”

**Author's Note:**

> quick note: if lance comes off as transphobic, i'm only writing him exactly as he's written in the show during the "very obviously a coming out scene but we're not going to say it" scene, which i don't interpret personally as transphobia but more as just. lance being lance
> 
> comments appreciated!!


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